On Monday, just one day after the Republican Party staged a Horst Wessel-style memorial for Charlie Kirk in Glendale, Arizona, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating “antifa” a “domestic terrorist organization.”
The order claims that antifa is a “militarist, anarchist enterprise” that uses “illegal means to organize and execute a campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide.”
Antifa, as even FBI Director Christopher Wray was forced to admit in a September 2020 congressional hearing, is not an organization but a broad current of opposition to fascism. “Antifa is an ideology, not an organization,” said Wray, who also testified that the bureau had no data showing any lethal violence committed by the organization.
Since antifa as a formal organization does not exist, Trump’s executive order amounts to a blanket authorization to brand political dissent and opposition to his fascist regime as “terrorism.”
One can be anti fascist whilst not being a member of Antifa. Don’t forget people, these are the dumbest people in the world running this show.
There are no ‘members’ of Antifa. There are only people that are anti-fascist.
Edit to add: The only people trying to make Antifa a thing are fascists trying to convince the dumbfuck masses that opposition to them is somehow a bad thing. And now they’re trying to make that a crime.
Weren’t the Portland riots committed by members of a group called “Antifa”? Also, apparently there are small sects that organize locally.
“Antifa has no official national leadership, though followers have organized themselves into small, local cells that sometimes coordinate with other movements, such as Black Lives Matter.”
"Some antifa adherents keep a very low profile, while other local groups venture to give themselves a more public profile with a name and a website. One of the oldest such groups appears to be Rose City Antifa, which says it was founded in Portland, Oregon, in 2007. According to its website, its main focus is “any work that prevents fascist organizing, and when that is not possible, provides consequences to fascist organizers. This is supported by researching and tracking fascist organizations.”
Source
As a Portlander:
No, yet again there are no organizations, just individuals committed to the same idea. This shit is spontaneous and if you actually knew anything about this city you would know why.
Just like black blocs are an idea and a tactic, not an organization there are no leaders in a bloc and no members, just participants.
Interesting. Thanks. Might be time for a rebrand.
I think conflating Antifa with anyone they choose is exactly the objective.
Yup, it’s just a new method to be able to kidnap people off the streets. First it was “they were an immigrant” and then “they looked like an immigrant”. And now it has progressed to “they looked like a domestic enemy of the state”.
I am NOT a member!
I would NEVER be a member of any club that would have someone like ME as a member.
True, but they have yet to utilize their new terrorist distinction on me, an anti-fascist, so I think the general layperson is safe atm
“They haven’t come for me yet, so we’re still safe” is not very good logic under a fascist regime.
You’re safe until you’re not, at which point, nobody will know because you’ve been disappeared.
So yes, we can hear from the people who we can still hear from. True equals true.
No, “antifa” is, itself, the term for the position of being against fascism. There is no organization.
They also will not care as they’re just going to accuse their enemies of it regardless of how left they are. They know exactly what they are doing, and they’ve been doing it way faster than I expected.
Without being a specific organization, antifa is still a specific culture with symbols, medias and codes forming a specific identity claimed and felt by people. One can be anti-fascist without being antifa.
One can be anti fascist without being anti fascist? Are you on fucking crack M8?
One can be anti-facist without being part of the antifas, yes. I don’t know from where you are but antifa is a specific subculture here, and in many places in Europe at least.
I feel like you’re still thinking ‘antifa’ is an organisation, when it’s simply being opposed to fascism. It’s a concept, not a movement, and it only appears to be a movement when fascism is on the rise, which tends to cause* antifa people to group together more to oppose it. There are some groups explicitly for doing antifa action, but if you’re against fascism, you are antifa by definition. Also ‘antifa’ action can be anything from denouncing Nazis online to protecting trans rights to protesting to any number of other things.
The right has tried to make ‘antifa’ into some sort of bogeyman for a decade, and we shouldn’t allow them to frame what it means.
It’s similar to liking video games. I’m a ‘gamer’ because I like to play games, but I don’t belong to any gamer groups, I don’t go to conventions, and I don’t compete in tournaments. Some people do those things, but I’m no less a gamer because I don’t.
Yes, I am antifa. Enough that I own this book (which I actually recommend everyone read who wants to resist fascism):
No it’s not, also in Europe antifa simply means anti-fascist.
Okay fedbot5000, you did good here but maybe reddit needs your FUD more.
How does one become a “member” of antifa?
Attend the planning meetings of any anti-fascist group that uses ‘antifa’ in their name, of which there are many; in my experience the ‘membership’ is almost identical to the ‘membership’ of the local Anarchist Book Fair planning committee.
Or show up to an anti-fascist rally, even as a bystander, get arrested for nothing, and now your name is on a ‘known members’ list in some pig’s office :P
Gotta get recruited by George Soros.
Annoy Trump and he’ll declare you one.
I would argue there is no organization known as “antifa”. Certainly nothing with structure or presence like tpusa or the proud boys, ya know the organization that terrorized the seat of our nation 5 years ago…
Reread their comment, they know.
They knew about it because they implied in the second that that the first would pass in the current administration because they are that dumb. They know.
Sending gif trying to look smart while missing the obvious point is kinda embarrassing ngl.
You steel manning and imposing your own assumptions is kinda embarrassing (ngl). You don’t know their mind yet you insist on reading past their words. You just look like a dork who wants there to be more than there is to a thing.
So, so dumb that I can fully imagine a scenario like this playing out amongst the orange knobhead and his staff on the daily
explain how so? consider that there is no way to “be” a member of a group that does not exist in that manner. being of the cohort of people who are antifascist is not the same as being a “member.” I suppose we are saying the same thing. :)
It’s crazy the amount of people that didn’t get your comment. You might want to clarify… XD